Therapist CEUs
Online
Continuing education for therapists wishing to integrate psych-sensitive yoga into private practice and understand the clinical applications of yoga
Choose Your Track
CEUs are available for Psychologists, Counselors, and Social Workers licensed to practice in the state of Illinois. Continuing education credit is sponsored by Centered Therapy Chicago, an approved continuing education provider licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (License #268000085).
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225-hour Psychologically-Sensitive Yoga Teacher Training + 12 CEUs; for clinicians seeking to integrate trauma-informed, body-based practices into their clinical work
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25-hour Going Deeper Program + 12 CEUs;
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12 CEUs only; For therapists already certified to teach yoga who have a solid basis of the history, lineage, and roots of yoga
Going Deeper: Understanding the Clinical Applications of Yoga (Going Deeper + 12 CEUs)
The CEU-only track is designed for therapists and clinicians who are interested in deepening their understanding of the intersection between yoga and mental health—without pursuing certification to teach yoga (or may already have a certification to teach!) Through five clinically-relevant modules, participants will explore foundational principles of trauma-sensitive yoga, somatic awareness, and the therapeutic relevance of yoga philosophy and practices.
Emphasis is placed on embodied learning, cultural responsiveness, and practical integration within clinical settings. This program provides tools to support emotional regulation, client agency, and nervous system resilience across diverse populations. Participants will leave with a stronger foundation to ethically and effectively incorporate body-based approaches into their therapeutic work, while remaining within their professional scope of practice.
This track is ideal for clinicians who want to:
Explore the psychological and physiological underpinnings of yoga practices.
Learn how to support clients through embodied and trauma-sensitive frameworks
Build confidence in using language, presence, and awareness to support regulation.
Reflect on the relevance of yoga philosophy in mental health contexts.
**Please note: Completion of this track does not provide certification to teach yoga or lead yoga-based sessions. Rather, it is an opportunity to deepen personal understanding and clinical insight for informed, body-aware therapeutic care.***
Cost: $960 ($480 Going Deeper + $480 12 CEUs)
Teaching Psychologically Sensitive Yoga for Therapists (YTT + 12 CEUs)
This 225 Hour Teaching Training Program is uniquely designed for clinicians seeking to integrate trauma-informed, body-based practices into their clinical work. This program explores the intersection of yoga and mental health with a strong emphasis on trauma informed clinical application, cultural sensitivity, and somatic awareness.
Clinicians will gain foundational skills and understanding in teaching trauma sensitive yoga, psychological application of the roots of yoga philosophy, somatic techniques to support emotional regulation, and therapeutic relevance for diverse populations. The following modules are CEU-sponsored by Centered Therapy and focus on enhancing clinical skills with embodied application and tools.
Trauma-Sensitive Yoga: Understanding the neurobiology of trauma and the clinical rationale for trauma-informed yoga practices.
Mental Health First Aid: Evidence-based approaches to identifying and supporting individuals in crisis.
The Heart of Yoga (Book Talk): Read text and discuss the teachings of yoga philosophy within clinical and therapeutic relationships.
Yoga for Queer Bodies: Culturally responsive practices that affirm LGBTQIA+ clients in therapeutic and yoga spaces.
Yoga for Everyone (Book Talk): Read text and discuss clinical considerations for accessibility, body image, and adaptive yoga practices.
Overcoming Trauma through Yoga (Book Talk): Build confidence in scope of practice through exploration of the differences between a trauma informed public yoga class and trauma informed yoga tools in psychotherapy.
Learning Objectives for the Teaching Track:
Identify and apply core principles of trauma-sensitive yoga in clinical and group settings to support clients with trauma histories.
Recognize mental health crisis indicators and respond effectively using the Mental Health First Aid framework.
Integrate foundational yoga philosophy into therapeutic modalities to foster self-regulation, self-inquiry, and presence.
Adapt yoga practices for diverse bodies and identities, including queer and gender-diverse clients, through an affirming and inclusive lens.
Demonstrate the ability to lead therapeutic yoga sequences that support emotional and physical safety, accessibility, and agency.
Critically evaluate the role of yoga in therapeutic contexts, considering ethics, scope of practice, and professional boundaries.
Cost: $4000 ($3750 YTT + $250 CEUs)
CEUs
Teaching Trauma Sensitive Yoga
September 17, 2025
5:30 pm - 8:30 pm
with Kathleen Katsikeas, LCSW
This is an interactive presentation and lecture on identifying the nuances of trauma on the human nervous system and the ways that larger, macro systems and environments implicate and impact the human body. Participants will be encouraged to explore how they have experienced systemic trauma, how trauma shows up in their body, and how their own nervous system responds. This information and knowledge will support the exploration, awareness, and understanding of how trauma shows up in the body. Additionally, this space will encourage the expansion and practical application of mindfulness and grounding skills for work with trauma.
Learning Objectives:
Identify the variety of subtle and immense ways that trauma shows up in the body and activates the nervous system.
Learn how to encourage and empower choice, connection, and autonomy with self and clients.
Explore somatic and mindfulness tools to settle and work with the nervous system (including the clinician’s own nervous system), and support the shift from sympathetic nervous system to parasympathetic nervous system.
Book Talk: The Heart of Yoga
September 26, 2025
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
with Lauren Gestes, LCSW
This book discussion centers around The Heart of Yoga by T.K.V. Desikachar, a foundational text that bridges ancient yogic philosophy with practical application for modern life. In this session, clinicians will explore core teachings such as breath-centered movement, the role of personal practice, and the therapeutic relevance of concepts like sthira (steadiness) and sukha (ease).
Through guided dialogue, participants will reflect on how the philosophical roots of yoga—particularly those drawn from the Yoga Sutras—can inform and enrich the therapeutic relationship. Emphasis will be placed on the internal principles of yoga (such as presence, self-awareness, and compassion) rather than physical postures, making this material accessible and clinically relevant for therapists of all backgrounds.
This book talk is intended to deepen clinicians’ insight into the embodied and relational aspects of yoga philosophy, and support ethically-grounded integration within therapeutic settings.
Learning Objectives:
Identify key philosophical teachings from The Heart of Yoga that hold relevance within mental health and therapeutic frameworks.
Describe how principles such as sthira and sukha can inform therapeutic presence and client-centered care.
Reflect on the role of breath, intention, and mindfulness in clinical work through the lens of yoga philosophy.
Recognize how the teachings of the Yoga Sutras can support emotional regulation, self-awareness, and resilience in therapy.
Explore ways to integrate non-dogmatic, culturally respectful aspects of yoga philosophy into clinical conversations and embodied practices.
Mental Health First Aid
November 19, 2025
5:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Book Talk: Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga
date tbd
Yoga for Queer Bodies
December 3, 2025
5:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Book Talk: Yoga for Everyone
February 20, 2026
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
with Samantha Allweiss, LCSW and Kathleen Katsikeas, LCSW
This is an interactive presentation aimed that offers practical strategies for providing mental health first aid to friends, family members and neighbors who may be experiencing a mental health crisis. Participants will be encouraged to think about the systems of support available to community members and better identify their role when not in a clinical setting to prevent compassion fatigue/burnout around caring for others. Participants will also review case studies to help ground concepts and walk away with skills that will help them provide care to their community.
Objectives:
Identify signs that someone is experiencing a mental health crisis: Determine what is within scope of care and when to refer out
Discuss alternatives to calling the police and how to de-escalate situations that necessitate police involvement
Identify signs compassion fatigue/burnout and strategies for implementing boundaries as care givers
This intimate event is an opportunity for clinicians to engage with the seminal text, Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga, by David Emerson and Elizabeth Hopper, PhD. Yoga is often touted as a tool for healing, but not all yoga is created equally in its capacity to heal trauma and support mental health. Through discussion and reflection, participants will engage with the authors’ guideposts for trauma sensitive yoga in order to better articulate to clients the role this tool can play in mental health support. Participants will have the opportunity to build confidence in their scope of practice through exploration of the differences between a trauma informed public yoga class and trauma informed yoga tools in psychotherapy. Participants will build knowledge of how to integrate body awareness into trauma healing in a community of like-minded learners.
Learning Objectives:
Understand the value of trauma sensitive yoga for mental health
Identify the elements of a trauma sensitive yoga class
Articulate the different applications of trauma sensitive yoga in the psychotherapy space vs. a yoga practice
This interactive presentation connects participants with how they’ve experienced their gender, sexual orientation, and other identities along with how to support clients with queer/genderqueer identities. This training holds the radical belief that we all encounter identity work; through understanding ourselves, we have and hold greater understanding of how all humans have been implicated by system oppression and ‘otherness’. Clinicians will be encouraged to engage in reflections on their own life experiences, conditioning, and biases. This understanding will support in facilitating and creating welcoming spaces and reducing harm for genderqueer and queer folks and their bodies.
Learning Objectives:
Identify barriers that individuals (clients, other community members, yoga students) may encounter based on queer and genderqueer/trans identities.
Foster understanding for how somatic movement and mindfulness can have a greater impact in the work as a community member, provider, or yoga teacher for marginalized bodies.
Learn invitational and welcoming language and space-creation that encourages inclusion, connection, and build community with genderqueer and queer folks.
This intimate event is for clinicians to expand their knowledge of accessible yoga and build skills to help clients build confidence in accessing body-based practices to support mental health. Through reflection and application of Diane Bondy’s book, Yoga For Everyone, participants will learn how to help clients describe their needs in somatic practices such as yoga. Participants will be encouraged to question why practices such as yoga have been made inaccessible to populations with physical limitations and/or that experience systemic oppression in the United States. Participants will reflect on their own biases and assumptions of what “counts” as yoga and deepen their understanding of a tool that has been a healing tool for thousands of years, and increasingly integrated into mental health care in the United States in the last century.
Learning Objectives:
Understand the role of accessible yoga in improving mental health
Expand language and understanding of yoga accessibility in order to support clients in bridging the gap to additional mental health supports
Explore systemic barriers to accessibility in mental health care and yoga through reflection and conversation